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Balance

Once September hits, my life is about balance. I am a full-time teacher at a highly regarded school in Alberta, I am a mother and a wife. In addition to those roles, I hold family and friends close. Sometimes I feel like I am being pulled a million ways, but ultimately I always find a way to get to that sweet point of balance.It doesn't always come easy - the finding balance point. It takes some trial and error, some epic fails, and some days where the bottom of a bottle of wine can't come soon enough, but I do get there. When I am at the precipice of "aaghhh!" and stressing about deadlines, meetings and extra-curricular that both my kids and myself have, I truly don't believe I will ever reach that point of "okay, I can relax now", but it does happen.I think one huge factor in my ability to find balance was the first years of my teaching career. I worked with some amazingly experienced teachers who taught me that if I want to survive, I have to employ some tactics. I did. I learned that I can't mark everything at work, and I don't even need to in order to get an accurate assessment. I also learned that quality time with loved ones is important and rare, so take it when I can. I find balance in my work because of these lessons Jeannine West, Margo Moysey and Sherrol Tait taught me.Another experience that played a role in finding that precious balance, was the death of my father in 2010. He went much to early (at the age of 52), and this had a huge impact on me. One of the gifts I gave my dad in his final year was a book about RV'ing through North America. He was retiring and planned to purchase a custom made motor coach to tour around North America. He never did. He needed more time. Dad's passing made me think about what is most important to me. Family. I need to spend quality time with my family and sometimes when life is getting crazy, I try to ground myself by planning something for myself and my family to do to "get back in touch" with one another.A final area of my life that is a huge part in keeping me balanced, is my marriage. Life can sometimes take over and this is the easiest area of our lives to not maintain because we take for granted that that person is going to be there when the storm blows away. We can't think that way. I value my husband and the time I get with him. According to the 5 Love Languages, I am about QUALITY TIME. This makes sense to me. If I don't find a balance between work-motherhood-marriage,and one of these areas is off-kilter, my life is unbalanced. I need to work daily to ensure this trifecta is stable. It takes work, and sometimes it may seem like the light is out of sight, but the work is worth it more often than not.

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